USS Hornet Attack Carrier Air Group 11 .. January 1-23, 1945

[TorpedoSquadron11]

Mark,
Thanks for posting these. Glad I could help.
The pilot from VT-11 that helped sink the Kashii was LT(JG) Lawrence E. Helmuth. I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Mr. Helmuth in Jan of 2006. He invited me into his home, showed me his collection of photos and we talked about his time with VT-11. He was a very humble man but was proud of his service in the Navy. Sadly he passed away soon after in May of 2006.

Tim

[Mark Allen M]

Happy New Year Tim and thank you very much for posting here on WIX. What a pleasure to hear from you and once again I'm very grateful for everything you have sent to me. Absolutely Outstanding in every way!

For those who may be interested. Tim can most certainly explain the vision much better than I so I'll try my best. Tim has been awarded a ships quarters on the USS Hornet Museum located at the old Alameda Naval Base In SF Bay. A fine floating museum I may add. He has a plan to display a broad array of items, artifacts, models, documents, photos and I believe video of Air Group 11, which most of you now know by this thread, served aboard the USS Hornet CV-12 during the early months of 1945 in the Pacific. This is such an outstanding endeavor and one of which I most certainly shall contribute anything Tim would like to have to display. I love the idea, and as with certainly all Air Groups of the US Navy during WW2, deserve a dedicated memorial to all the service members who were assigned to these Air Groups. Wonderful indeed!

Tim I'm not sure if you have been able to contact Mr. Leonard over on Nathan's website yet. http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/ I believe his father was one of the founders of the VF-11 Sundowners. Again Tim thanks for the post.

Mark

[TorpedoSquadron11]

Thanks Mark,
Work onboard the USS Hornet should start in March. Lots of things need to happen before we can occupy the space. In the meantime I am desperately trying to find more information, photos and memorabilia from VF-11 and VB-11. The majority of my collection is from VT-11 and I would like to have more representation from the other two squadrons in the air group. We plan on having a large monitor in the room showing photos of the aircrews, aircraft and strike photos.
If anyone has contacts, information, memorabilia or photos from Air Group 11(VB-11, VF-11 and VT-11) from 1942 to Feb 1945 please contact me at Torpedosquadron11@gmail.com.
I did try to contact Mr. Leonard on the other forum but he did not respond to my PM's.

I will keep you posted as things progress.
Tim

[Mark Allen M]

I will keep you posted as things progress.
Tim

Please do, and I still need to send you some stuff ...

[sundowner]

Hello Mark and Tim ,

I am Henk "OMAR" van der Lugt and I am the SunDowner Historian , I have been to several SunDowner/CAG-11 reunions since 1996 , maybe we can exchange some info and data !!



Cheers, Henk "OMAR"

[Mark Allen M]

Welcome Omar, yes indeed I've known about you for some time now. It's nice to hear from you. Thanks for your time and effort with the Sundowners. Great stuff. Tim I'm sure will be delighted to hear from you as well. Please feel free to PM me anytime to exchange contact information. I'd love to chat with you sometime.

Sincerely,

Mark

[TorpedoSquadron11]

Great to hear from you Omar.
I think with the help of you and Mark, our Air Group 11 room onboard the USS Hornet will be a great success! Still looking for VB-11 contacts/ family members and photos.

Tim

[dakoblue]

where the movie from this actions can be found?

rgds
D

[vwprts4u]

Hello,

First post,

My father Commander Robert W. J. Cocks (who will be 93 next month) served in VB 11 as a Dive Bomber Pilot on the Hornet. He would never talk about the details of his service until recently. He has just been contacted by Tim, the gentleman who is setting up the display on the Hornet honoring Air Group 11. Today I began the search for items related to his Navy career. Wow! My dad kept everything! Our family had discussed providing these items to a museum so that many people could enjoy them, we are very pleased that this opportunity has been presented. I really had no idea how extensive a collection he has! I found photographs and original documents that I am sure have not seen the light of day since the war. Most of his gear is still in good shape and will make an excellent addition to the display if the items are needed. Tim indicated he will be visiting my father soon, he has many stories to tell and I am sure Tim will love the depth of documents and photos.

Thanks Tim for your efforts to preserve the history surrounding these brave men that served our country.

Chris

[Mark Allen M]

Good morning Chris and welcome. Thank you for visiting and posting here on WIX. Tim is quite the man for taking the time and dedication to help preserve this type of history. You can count on a spectacular display on the USS Hornet by Tim and his volunteers. I am always available to help Tim and folks such as yourself so please feel free to contact me as well as Tim anytime.

I am currently having models built for Tim's museum on the Hornet so if you and your father would like to supply any photos and/or information about your father's aircraft types and numbers, I will be happy to have models built for you and Tim's museum displays as well. Any assistance we can provide just ask away and it shall be done.

Pleasure to hear from you Chris and God bless your father. There's very few real hero's left in the world from that time and place in history and the numbers are getting smaller with each day that passes, and this morning I just read a post from the son of one of them.

You have so much of your father to be proud of, as do we all, and there are no words I could ever express that can truly show the appreciation all of us feel for his sacrifices and service.

Commander Cocks will never be forgotten and will always be placed at the level of hero's. Please thank him for his service to his country for me would you?

Sincerely or respectfully,

Mark A. Mansfield

[vwprts4u]

Mark,

It was a pleasure to meet you at the airshow yesterday, thanks for your time and effort to help Tim with the Air Group 11 project on the Hornet. The look on my Fathers face when the SBD flew by was priceless.

Chris

[Mark Allen M]

The pleasure was all mine Chris. Your father was a very cool fellow to meet yesterday and I agree the look on his face when that SBD flew by was priceless. I believe Tim told me your dad hadn't seen an SBD in the air since 1945? Quite a site for him I'm sure. I look forward to you and Tim posting some photos of yesterday's event here. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be very interested in seeing photos of your father as it's not everyday one get to meet a hero up close like that. I hope your trip home was safe and comfortable for you and Commander Cocks.

I sincerely hope the documentary comes out perfect as well and I look forward to seeing it.

Mark

[Mark Allen M]

While I'm thinking about it, here's some more photos of Air Group 11








USS Hornet


USS Hornet


VF-11 Sundowners ready room, Dad sitting in the back with cigar in his mouth.


VF-11 Sundowners ready room, Dad sitting in the back with cigar in his mouth. slightly different shot.


VF-11 Sundowner Hellcat nose over


VF-11 Sundowner top scoring ace Charles Stimpson


VF-11 Sundowner Jim Swope


VF-11 CO Eugene Fairfax, a real great guy and a good friend of my dad's


VB-11 Helldiver


VF-11 wave off


VF-11 Hellcat. Great quality shot here


VF-11 promo shot



VF-11 Sundowners promo shot


VF-11 Sundowners promo shot


VT-11 Avenger


USS Hornet


VT-11 pilots


Dad upper right

[bond...james_bond]

I'm a new member and wish to respond to the earlier post re: the sinking of the Kashii and VT11's Larry Helmuth. My father was a
radioman/gunner on Larry's plane during the war. Of course, he didn't talk much about the war but did describe the sinking: mast high approach, strafing the cruiser from his ventral machine gun, scrambling back up to the cockpit and then taking the pictures of the torpedo hit. My father, Robert "Bob" Crawford, passed away in 1995.
I have inherited my father's scrapbook and log book. Lots of interesting pictures and stuff including a series of pictures he took of the Kashii. He also took a picture of the Musashi during Leyte Gulf which ended up in Morrison's multi-volume history of the U.S. Navy in WWII. Larry got a hit on it although my father's log calls it a Nagato class BB. Larry won the Navy Cross for the cruiser.
There is a great picture of Larry when they were in Santa Rosa, CA for R and R and training in 1945---I assume preparing for the invasion of Japan: sitting in cockpit, hair in the wind, aviator sunglasses, cigar stub in mouth and four ship silhouettes under the cockpit. On V-J day they flew under the S.F.-Oakland Bay Bridge twice!
Tom

[bond...james_bond]

Me again. Anyone please correct any error I may have made from my error prone memory. AND why can't I see those earlier pictures! ---Tom